According to the Report of the 15th Preparatory Committee meeting of the Unified Patent Court (UPC), the recruitment of Judges will start during the beginning of May. [1]
The Court of First Instance will always have a multinational composition of the panel of judges. The panel shall comprise three judges, unless one of the parties requests that the President of the Court allocates an additional technically qualified judge from a pool of judges, in which case the panel is extended to four judges. The parties may also agree that the case is to be head by only one legally qualified judge. The panels will always be chaired by a legally qualified judge.
In the central division, i.e. Paris, London and Munich, any panel will consist of two legally qualified judges who are nationals of different Contracting Member (CM) states, and one technically qualified judge from the Pool of judges. (the “Pool”)
The local divisions expected to handle less than 50 cases annually, will have one legally qualified judge from the CM state where the local division is placed, and two legally qualified judges who are not nationals of that CM state. These judges will be allocated from the Pool of Judges. If the local division is expected to handle more than 50 cases annually, the panel will instead comprise two legally qualified judges who are nationals of that CM state, and one who is allocated from the Pool. That third judge will serve this local division on a long term basis in order to ensure an efficient functioning of the Court. If the Court is a regional division, two legally qualified judges will be selected from the CM states concern, and one from the Pool.
The technically qualified judge will always be selected by their experience in the relevant field of technology.
The judges now to be recruited shall ensure the highest standards of competence and proven experience in the field of patent litigation, and the legally qualified judges must have qualifications required for appointment to judicial offices in a CM state. The technically qualified judges must have a university degree and proven expertise in a field of technology, they must also have proven knowledge of civil law and procedure relevant to patent litigation.
The Pool will comprise all legally and technically qualified judges, who are full-time or part-time judges of the Court. There will be at least one technically qualified judge per field of technology. The allocation of judges from the Pool will be based on legal or technical skills, linguistic skills and relevant experience.
All judges to be recruited will receive proper training at a training facility set up in Budapest. The training framework will also focus on internships in national courts or divisions of the UPC, and improvement of linguistic skills, technical aspects of patent law. For the technically qualified judges the knowledge in civil procedure will of course be given a special focus.
Sofia Willquist, European Patent Attorney
a special focus.
